5 Things to consider about the coal terminal project in Mobile

Marie Dyson, a resident of the Church Street East neighborhood, holds up a dirty white cloth symbolizing the effect of coal dust on the city. Residents brandished the dirty cloths during a Planning Commission meeting on Thursday, Nov. 21, 2013. (John Sharp/jsharp@al.com).

MOBILE, Alabama – Walter Energy Inc. wants to build a $140
million coal handling terminal along the Mobile waterfront south of downtown
Mobile and near Brookley Aeroplex.

The project is made possible through the approval of tax credits
by the Alabama Legislature.

But a grass roots opposition movement has delayed the
project's progress in the city of Mobile. More than 1,344 residents have signed
petitions opposing the development.

At 2 p.m. today, the Mobile Planning Commissions is scheduled
to take up the project's approval. Here are five things Mobilians should know
about this project:

1.
Ides of March. Walter Energy is so convinced that
this project will be delayed beyond Thursday's scheduled meeting, that company
officials in Hoover are not planning to travel to Mobile today. Instead, local
engineer Gary Cowles will request the commissions holdover the project's vote
until March 20. Part of the delay, according to a company spokesman, is related
to Mardi Gras – they don't want the hoopla of the Carnival season to be a
distraction. The project has been on the commission's docket since September and has been delayed several times.

3.
What's going on in Tuscaloosa? Tom Hoffman with
Walter Energy said the Tuscaloosa County portion of the project is sort of on
hold while Walter Energy officials monitor the markets. He said the market for metallurgic
grades of coal is "not strong" right now, but that things could change. The
Blue Creek Energy mine will be located in the northern part of Tuscaloosa
County near the Fayette and Walker counties border and has the potential to
produce an average of 2.53 million tons of coal annually for export to steel
mills worldwide starting in 2018. Hoffman said the mine will have a 40-plus
year life and will employ 500 people at full production. He said it could take
several years to fully develop that mine. Walter Energy has an existing mine in
Tuscaloosa County that is one of the most productive in the state.

4.
Why Mobile? Hoffman said that the company is
trying to pace the development of the Blue Creek Terminal project in order to meet
stronger market demands for hard coking coal in the future. He said the purpose
of the terminal project is to meet a higher demand for shipping coal beyond the
current capacity at the Alabama State Docks. Walker Energy said it has been
shipping coal out of the Port of Mobile since 1976. Hoffman said with the Blue
Creek Energy mine online, there will be more demand than capacity can allow. The
new facility, which would be located on industrial property, is expected to
have a loading capacity of 6 million to 6.5 million tons a year once finished,
with the coal being shipped to Europe, Argentina and Brazil for steel
production. Company officials have said that there will be 50 new, well-paying
jobs at the terminal once it's finished.

5.
Pollution concerns. The Planning Commission has
been concerned, in recent months, over what type of pollution controls the coal
plant will employ. The company has since pledged to control stockpiles of coal
with misting cannons, while transporting the commodity through the facility
with a continuous dust cover. Opponents have since produced a 2007 report that
analyzed four houses in downtown Mobile that exhibited considerable amount of
coal dust pollution. Residents have blamed the McDuffie Coal Terminal, which is
one of the largest coal plants in the U.S., for creating the pollution.